Anna Thorson, M.D., Ph.D., from the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues analyzed data from household interviews conducted in FilaBavi, a Vietnamese demographic surveillance site in Bavi district, northwest Vietnam, with confirmed outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry, subtype H5N1. The researchers included 45,478 randomly selected people in the district to answer screening questions about exposure to poultry and flu-like illnesses (defined as a combination of cough and fever). The study was performed from April 1 to June 30, 2004.

As background information, the authors explain that in Vietnam, an epidemic of HPAI in poultry, subtype H5N1, has been ongoing since 2003, despite efforts by the government to eliminate the diseased birds from flocks. "In addition to being an important source of income, poultry is kept by many rural households for subsistence farming. The current epidemic in poultry is thus not only a public health problem but also an economic drawback for the many Vietnamese who live in rural areas." The researchers note the Vietnam is the country hardest hit by the ongoing H5N1 epidemic, with 87 confirmed human cases of HPAI (with 38 deaths) and 1,838 verified outbreaks in poultry in July 2005.

In this study, the researchers found "a total of 8,149 individuals (17.9 percent) reported flu-like illness, 38,373 persons (84.4 percent) lived in households keeping poultry, and 11,755 (25.9 percent) resided in households reporting sick or dead poultry." The researchers report that having poultry in the household was not a risk factor for developing a flu-like illness, but h
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Contact: Anna Thorson
anna.thorson@ki.se
JAMA and Archives Journals
9-Jan-2006